When I was 7, my best friend brought his Casio to school. He played chop sticks. All the girls came over to him. We were under a tree. It was like a movie. Except that I was like the extra in the movie. I watched the girl I liked go over to him and be all gross and flirtatious (well, as flirtatious as a 7-year-old can be…..I guess I’m still bitter about this). So I went home that night and asked my Dad if he could teach me how to play keyboards. My Dad said yes and proceeded to show me how everything worked. He even showed me a song. I played the song, and enjoyed it. Then my Dad said all I had to do was practice for 45 minutes a day. I said that was impossible; Duck Tales came on in only 15 minutes. And so ended my practice of keyboards.
I often wish I had learned the lesson of practicing earlier. Maybe I could be some crazy awesome musician-prodigy right now, if only I had practiced instead of watching The Disney Afternoon (although that was like the coolest thing that’s ever been on tv). But the sad thing is that, 17 years later, I still haven’t learned this lesson.
–OR–
(Seriously, people, that’s a really tough choice!! Although I’m pretty sure the one on the left is a dude. And it’s anybody’s guess about the one on the right.)
The last few weeks I’ve been absolutely sucking on guitar. Wrong notes, awkward finger placement, muffled tones, and totally off rhythmically. As well as off with pedal hits as well…..pedals are an art form all on their own. What to hit, when, at what tempo; what will fit the song where, how to get to it without breaking the flow of your playing, all that jazz. And it has been a nightmare.
I mentioned this to my wife, and she said I should probably practice for 45 minutes a day. I told her that was impossible; a delay pedal ended on e-bay in only 15 minutes. Not to mention I was expecting someone to post pictures of their new BJF pedal on gearpage in less than 10 minutes! And I hadn’t checked to see if there were new comments on my guitar blog in over 30 seconds! Then I remembered the last service when I was trying to do a swell and I thought I had clicked my volume pedal on……but I hadn’t. And so I hit this chord really hard on a soft part so that it would ring long enough to swell in. Except there was no swell. My volume pedal was not on. So there’s just this huge, crunchy chord hammering out in the middle of the tenderpart of the song. It sounded like Nigel Tufnel trying to play with BB King. Hence, once that horror started to replay itself in my memory of the not so distant past, I decided to practice all week.
(Yep. Sounding like that will make you practice every time.)
And guess what? My last few services and performances? No sucking! I feel like I know how to play guitar again! Amazing, isn’t it. You’d think I’d have learned this lesson by now. But no, most of the time I’m still that second grader wishing all the girls would come up to me as I played the Casio, but unwilling to give up Duck Tales. Don’t laugh! It was a really tough choice!!
Splendid.
Karl.
Guitar for Worship 